'Afraid For My Kids And Myself,' Slain Oxford Woman Wrote

OXFORD — Scott Gellatly's breakup with his second wife, Lori, was hardly a secret among family and friends.

Before he fatally shot her and seriously wounded her mother at his in-laws' Oxford home Wednesday morning, police said, Gellatly described the end of his marriage in candid and desperate posts on Facebook, the same social media site where years before he gleefully posted photos of his wedding proposal to Lori at sunset in Key West, Fla., and announced the birth of the couple's twins.

In an April 6 post titled, "me and lori," Gellatly, 46, wrote that his wife had left him.

"…she said she not coming back so another one left me god!!!!!!!!! Why what did I do that was wrong…god I trust in you I believe in you you are saver (sic) and one day soon I will see you."

Some of the friends who saw the posts said they reached out to Gellatly with words of support, unaware of Gellatly's deep-seated anger and jealousy. Never, they said, did they think that the marital discord would result in Gellatly's being charged with his wife's slaying, the sixth domestic homicide of the year in Connecticut, which touched off a six-hour police manhunt up and down the East Coast and school and office lockdowns throughout the state.

But Lori Gellatly, 32, and her family knew about Gellatly's rage. And so did a judge. State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said Wednesday that police had been to the Gellatly home one or two times in the past but he did not elaborate on the circumstances.

On April 24, Lori Gellatly obtained a temporary restraining order against Scott Gellatly, according to records filed at Superior Court in Milford. Lori Gellatly said that her husband was violent in an April 1 dispute. She said she feared for the safety of herself and her children.

"Scott yelled in my face … and got very angry," Lori Gellatly wrote in the application. "I felt threatened and told him I didn't feel safe and was going to leave with the twins. … He then told me I wasn't going anywhere and grabbed my right thumb and twisted my wrist" while two children were in her arms, she wrote.

She said that Gellatly grabbed her arm and pulled the child, who nearly fell to the floor.

"He calmed down after a social worker with family and children's aid came," Lori Gellatly wrote. "He told me to take the babies and leave which at that point I did."

Lori Gellatly wrote that her husband texted and called repeatedly but that she did not respond.

"He acts out very violently and I am afraid for my kids and myself," she wrote.

Judge Robert J. Malone ordered Gellatly to stay away from his wife and the children. A hearing on the application for a permanent order was set to take place Thursday.

But that was too late for Lori Gellatly.

Neighbors of her parents, Doug and Merry Jackson, said that they heard gunshots Wednesday morning at the Jackson home. Police said that Scott Gellatly forced his way into the home at 55 Sioux Drive about 5:30 a.m.

Lori Gellatly, police said, called 911, saying that her estranged husband was attempting to break into the home. When police arrived, they found Lori Gellatly and her mother, Merry Jackson, with gunshot wounds. Vance said he did not know how long it took state police to respond after the 911 call.

Lori Gellatly was pronounced dead at Waterbury Hospital. Jackson was listed in serious but stable condition late Wednesday at St. Mary's Hospital.

Police said that family members were caring for the twins.

Lori Gellatly had been living with her parents since the breakup. They lived just down the street from their daughter. Al Arcuri, a neighbor and friend of the Jacksons, said that Doug Jackson called him from his workplace in East Hartford Wednesday morning to ask what was happening there.

"I said to him, 'I don't know how to tell you this, but there was a shooting at your house,'" Arcuri said.

Police said that after the shooting, Gellatly fled in his wife's car, prompting police to broadcast all-points bulletins from New England to Florida. Schools throughout the region were put on lockdown as patrol cars canvassed parking lots, highways and alleys in search of Gellatly.

At the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's headquarters on Elm Street in Hartford, where Lori Gellatly worked as an environmental analyst, security was increased until word came that Scott Gellatly had been caught.

During the six-hour manhunt, police said, curious residents and observant police officers helped in nabbing Gellatly. Police said that Gellatly tried to elude police by ditching his wife's car at an Oxford auto repair shop and stealing another vehicle.

When Mike Hynds and Jim Murphy went to work at their business, New England Tire and Brake Service, on Wednesday morning, they saw a blue 2013 Ford Escape in the parking lot that didn't belong there, they said.